Kamara's goal gives Dynamo 1-0 win over Wizards

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (STATS) - Kei Kamara turned his game-winning
goal into a tribute to the late King of Pop.

Kamara donned a glove and did a Michael Jackson-style dance
after scoring in the first half of the Houston Dynamo's 1-0
victory over the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday night.

"It was just something I had in my pocket," said Kamara, who
scored on Mike Chabala's first career assist. "Soccer's fun.
It's kind of disappointing to see that Michael's gone, but the
only thing I could do was celebrate the moment. I used to dance
like Michael when I was a little kid back in Africa, in talent
shows. So I had to bring that one out."

Houston's Pat Onstad made three saves for his eighth shutout of
the year, giving him the MLS lead over Chivas USA's Zach
Thornton.

The Dynamo (9-3-4), who extended their Western Conference lead
to four points over Chivas, broke a two-match winless streak.

Kansas City (5-6-4) controlled the run of play early, with three
clear scoring opportunities in the first 11 minutes, before
Houston scored on a counterattack in the 18th.

Corey Ashe sent a long pass down the left side to Chabala, whose
left-footed cross found Kamara in front of the net. Kamara
outjumped central defender Rauwshan McKenzie and headed the ball
home from just inside the 6-yard box.

"In pregame, Dom (coach Dominic Kinnear) gave me the green
light," Chabala said. "He told me to get forward, get around
them and give Cory an option. Cory played a perfect ball to me,
nice and easy, like we do in training every Thursday. I put a
good ball across, and Kei did the rest of the work."

McKenzie, making his first MLS start, was filling in for U.S.
national team defender Jimmy Conrad. Conrad was called up to the
Gold Cup squad but is out with a hamstring injury that he
aggravated in Sunday's 3-1 SuperLiga loss to Mexican side Santos
Laguna.

"I'm sure they were saying, 'Hey, this is his first start. Let's
go after him. He's going to be nervous,'" said McKenzie, who
recovered to play a mostly solid game in central defense. "It
comes with the job. I don't mind it."

That was a key part of Houston's strategy, Chabala said.

"We definitely wanted to go at both the center backs and make it
hard for them," he said. "It was one of their guys' first game,
and we just wanted to give them a handful."

The Wizards had two late chances to equalize, but couldn't
convert either of them.

In the 83rd minute, Josh Wolff's header hit the ground and
bounced off the underside of the crossbar. The ball bounced
around in front of the goal, but Abe Thompson's attempt to put
back the rebound went wide.

Claudio Lopez's free kick from just outside the penalty area, in
the closing seconds of stoppage time, also missed by inches.

"When you make adjustments and you have two clear chances, you
figure you bury one and walk away with a point," Wizards coach
Curt Onalfo said.